Monday, 6 October 2014

The Infinity Program: A Guest Post by Richard H. Hardy

We're pleasedto participate in a Tribute Books mini blog tour for The Infinity Program by Richard H. Hardy.

We asked Mr. Hardy what challenges he faced in writing a novel that blends elements of the supernatural, romance, and the high-tech world. Guest Post

The
Infinity Program blends the Techno-Thriller and the Science Fiction
genres. It also features a romance as well as a mainstream approach to
both character and setting. My goal was to create an interesting mix
that readers would find fresh and unique.

The unfolding romance
of Jon Graeme and Lettie Olsen wasn’t planned from the beginning— it
just happened as I wrote the book. It provides a subplot, a backdrop to
the main action and opens windows into the inner lives of the
characters. Their evolving relationship also serves as an interesting
contrast to Harry Sale, the brilliant but isolated programming genius.

The
blend of High-Tech with a fantastic alien technology presented its own
unique challenges. In order to be true to the high-tech setting, I had
to use some computer terminology. I used it sparingly and focused on
building a narrative where the technicalities disappeared behind the
story. With the alien technology, I used a different approach,
emphasizing the fantastic and minimizing the explanations. More than
anything, I wanted the reader to have fun.

My 26 years in the IT
field gave me lots of raw material for office life in a high
tech-company. I saw firsthand how stressful and demanding it can be.
The Infinity Program gives the reader an inside view of this intense,
quirky, and sometimes Dilbertesque environment. The IT setting
provides the base for the reader to leap into the high-tech world of the
future.

Our lives are such a mix of different elements. One
day we do difficult things with ease, the next we trip up over the
simple things; a day of joy is followed by a day of sadness; an act of
kindness is followed by an act of selfishness; thoughtfulness is
followed by a lack of attention. We never know quite what to expect.
Mixing genres in fiction is a natural way to capture something of this
heady blend. When it’s done well, it transcends genre and the book
stands on its own.

Book Summary and Buy Links

Jon Graeme and Harry Sale are unlikely
friends. Harry is a world-class programmer, but his abrasive
personality alienates co-workers. In contrast, Jon is a
handsome and easy-going technical writer, the low man on the
IT totem pole.

Sharing a love of nature, the men set out together, planning
to go their separate ways--Jon on a hike and Harry, fly
fishing. Three days later, Jon arrives at the rendezvous
point, but his friend is nowhere in sight. When Jon finds
Harry unconscious on the floor of a cave, Harry claims to have
been lying there the entire time. But he is neither cold nor
hungry. What Jon doesn't know is that Harry fell into an
underground cavern, where he came into contact with an alien
quantum computer.

Back at work, Harry jettisons his regular tasks and
concentrates exclusively on inventing new operating language
to access the alien system. In the process he crashes his
office's Super Computer and is fired. Jon convinces the
company to give Harry a second chance, arguing that the system
he has invented will make them millions.

Richard H. Hardy was born in Glasgow,
Scotland, during a week of relentless bombing raids just before
the close of World War II. The day he was born an incendiary bomb
fell on the church across the street from where he lived, so he is
fond of saying that he entered the world with a big adrenaline
rush.

His family later moved to England and then on to America.

After college Richard bounced through a series of temporary jobs
as he traveled around the country, wanting nothing more than to
write fiction. A job driving a library van allowed him free time
to write several short stories and work on a novel.

He and his wife moved to New Hampshire, where he took an entry
level job at a software company. He was soon promoted to the
technical writing department and ended up producing over 500,000
words of online documentation. After a few years he was promoted
to the programming department and ended up as the Senior EDI
Programmer, creating EDI maps and writing UNIX scripts and
troubleshooting on AIX systems throughout the U.S. and Canada.

After he retired, he started writing fiction again. The
Infinity Program is his first published novel.